PHILADELPHIA – Credible evidence has surfaced that Inquirer columnist John Grogan might have greatly exaggerated the badness of his now-infamous Labrador retriever Marley.

In his memoir, Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog, Grogan portrays his now-deceased pet as incorrigible, neurotic, ill-mannered, flatulent and slobbering. But a SmokingCanine investigation found scant evidence to support the unflattering depiction.

One former neighbor, Betty Barcalot, told SmokingCanine: “Marley was a great dog. I once witnessed him dart into traffic to pull a chihuahua to safety. But did that make the book?”

The Trubezh arrived Jan. 20 bearing unexpected cargo, said Joe Balzano, executive director of the South Jersey Port Corp. A young man had stolen in with the cocoa beans the ship picked up in Ivory Coast.

Now he is stuck on the vessel indefinitely as it navigates from port to port.

(snip)

The owners of vessels bear the responsibility, and the financial burden, to send stowaways home. Ship owners often also pay for armed guards while in U.S. ports with stowaways aboard. If the stowaway escapes, the owner is fined about $3,000.

Rather than bear the expense, some officers have ordered stowaways cast overboard.

“The law created incentives for stowaways never to make it ashore,” said Doug Stevenson, director of the Center for Seafarer Rights in New York.

The center defended the captain and first mate of the cargo ship MC Ruby, who were sentenced to life in prison for the 1992 murder of eight Ghanaian stowaways. The men were beaten with iron rods, shot, and dumped off the coast of Portugal.

I went back to Second Source today and spoke with Ken, the owner, and got permission to take pictures of some of the unusual computers I mentioned yesterday.

They are made by Ron Sanderson, of whom the Wilmington News-Journal wrote in 2004 (a link to the story is not available–it’s archived):

At 62, he’s a veteran of modifying all manner of machinery. In 1982, he completed a 15-year restoration of a 1953 Ford Crown Victoria. (It netted him first place in a national competition.) He’s renovated, cleaned and sold nearly 30 Harley-Davidsons, he says. In 1983, he disassembled all but the seat and frame of his Harley within two hours of its purchase and sent the parts out to be chromed. The bike, to which he attached a radar detector and a cigarette lighter, landed him a page in Easy Rider magazine.

His passion now is computer modifications, or “mods,” which are to PCs what hot rods are to cars. First intended to push the speeds of processor chips, mods often were the province of gamers. And as the companies that produce the powerful and expensive graphics cards essential to fluid play started designing cards with sharp colors, gamers intent on showing them off incorporated windows into their PC towers.

I’m not sure what the case of this one started as–it looks like something that might have been in a rack of a mainframe or a communications center:

Here’s another view of it:

This one came in with the morning milk:

Bringing new meaning to the term “micro-computer”:

And this one will always keep odors away:

And here’s a view inside the litter box:

Ken told me that Mr. Sanderson also will make computers to order, but that those cost more than the ones on the shelves (makes sense to me). Those that had price tags ran around approximately $499.99.

Disclaimer: My only relationship to Second Source is as an occasional–and satisfied–customer. It’s the place to which I refer any of my friends who need computer repairs, and it’s where we got my younger daughter her first system. Not to mention the motherboard I used for my first motherboardectomy, several keyboards, cables, and other digital miscellany.

While the administration can claim some clear progress, Bush’s ringing call from New Orleans’s Jackson Square on Sept. 15 to “do what it takes” to make the city rise from the waters has not been matched by action, critics at multiple levels of government say, resulting in a record that is largely incomplete as Bush heads into next week’s State of the Union address.

And this is a surprise how?

The current Federal Administration has proven itself willing to promise anything, then renege on the promise.

They say whatever they think will sound good at the time, then do not follow through.

I dropped by my local used computer store today, hoping to stumble on a used PCMCIA wireless network card, for when I’m on the road and in a hotel with only a wireless network.

No luck, but I saw some interesting handmade computers. I wish I had had my camera with me; I’d have taken pictures if they gave me permission. They all had CD drives, floppy drives, and everything else needed for a fully functional box.

One was built inside one of those plastic milk carton thingies.

One was in a cardboard carton.

But the ultimate one was in a Tidy-Cat cat litter bucket.

Maybe I’ll run by there tomorrow and see whether they’ll let me take some pictures.

To cultivate fear for partisan gain is never a political tactic to be proud of, but Rove’s prescription of naked fearmongering is just plain reprehensible when the nation faces a shifting array of genuine, serious threats. This is a moment for ethical politicians — and, yes, these days that seems like an oxymoron — to speak honestly about what dangers have receded, what new dangers have emerged, and how the imperatives of liberty and security can be balanced.

But an audit by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found that in the South Central Region, based in Hillah, officers â€œcannot properly account for or support $96.6 million in cash and receipts.â€

I started to try to remember the last time I had heartburn (as opposed to a burning heart–that I can remember!). I couldn’t. It’s been years.

Now, I don’t have a particularly iron stomach and I eat lots of spicy food. I believe that the stomach, like any other muscle, should be exercised regularyly. Indeed, beef curry is my single favorite dish.

So what is it with this epidemic of heartburn that seems to be sweeping the nation?

Except for selling the assets of the nation to the highest bidder, endangering its citizens and their property through inaction and inattention, ignoring the Constitution, and trespassing on the rights of the citizenry.

That change was made in mid-December during private negotiations involving House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and the staffs of those committees as well as the House Energy and Commerce Committee. House and Senate Democrats were excluded from the meeting. The Senate gave final approval to the budget-cutting measure on Dec. 21, but the House must give it final consideration early next month.

No electronic record of enrollment in a Medicare drug plan;
Pharmacies charging cost sharing above $1 for a generic drug/$3 for a brand name drug;
Attempts to impose deductibles;
Prescriptions being denied because of exclusion from a plan’s formulary; and
Prescriptions being denied because of “prior authorization” and “step therapy” requirements.

“Overall, the impacts described herein are conservative,” stated the report, which was sent to Homeland Security’s office for infrastructure protection.

“Any storm rated Category 4 or greater … will likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching, leaving the New Orleans metro area submerged for weeks or months,” said the report.

The documents are the latest indication that the federal government knew beforehand of the catastrophic damage that a storm of Katrina’s magnitude could cause. The Bush administration has been lambasted for its lackluster response to Katrina and its aftermath, including criticism that the government should have known a hurricane of that strength posed a danger to the area’s levees and was unprepared to cope with it.